Inuit counsellors tackle Nunavut's biggest issues

For nearly a decade, the Ilisaqsivik Society's 'Our Life's Journey' program has been combining traditional Inuit knowledge with southern techniques to create a counsellors training program that's unique among Nunavutcommunities.

But somehope it won't be unique for long.

"Since [Ilisaqsivik] has opened, it has helped lots of people," OoleepeekaAudlakiak-Panipak said in Inuktitut.

The 'Our Life's Journey' graduatebegan work as a counsellor this month. She says she hopes to provide youth with the emotional support she always wanted.

"Earlier in my teen years, it felt like I had nobody to turn to," Audlakiak-Panipak said."I would like to help anyone in general, but I'm focusing on the youth, because when you are young you don't know where to turn."

This fall, a coroner's inquest into the high rate of suicides in Nunavutheard about the Clyde River program.

When the inquestwrapped, the jury issued a long list of recommendations, including that the territorial government "pilot Clyde River's Illisaqsivik[sic]model in other communities."

'We have to help ourselves first'

In onecorner of the crowded Ilisaqsivik building, Aisa and Regilee Piungituq share anoffice. The husband and wife teamcounselelders, couples and anyone who needs it butpeoplehave to ask first.

"I can't support the people who think about taking their own lives, but don't say it," Regilee Piungituq said in Inuktitut. "The people who do talk about it,I can helpthem."

That's why the counsellors try to make the centre a welcoming place, with colourful posters, art and positive messages.

The training program, whichis delivered in four modules over two years, doesn't just teach people howto help others, the instructor says, it also helps future counsellors learn how to handle their own feelings.

"We have to help ourselves first, before we can help others."

For Aisa Piungituq, the program helped him shed the typically hardened emotional state held by many Inuit men. He says by"becoming softer," he's become more attuned to his own emotional needs and the needs of others.

"When you don't talk it out," he said in Inuktitut,"you feel alone and ashamed, likeyou're the only person who feelsthat way."

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Each day, Aisa Piungituq says he tries to provide a safe place for fellow Inuit who deal withissues that are all too common in Nunavut, includingovercrowded housing, the lasting effects of residential schoolsand unhealthy relationships.

"You can see them struggling and not talking about what bothers them," he said. "It builds up and becomes toxic to the point where some may get violent.

"But you can see a difference once they open up and share what's on their mind."

Another recent graduate, Elijah Kautuq, says the program is not only important to people in Clyde River.Each year, people from communities across the territory fly to the Baffin Island communityto attend the program and when tragedy strikes, the Clyde River counsellors head to the communities.

For example, Kautuq says he visited Pond Inlet this summerafter a tent fireclaimed the lives of a man and three small children. Counsellorsspoke with the children's classmates, the father's coworkers and the search and rescue team that responded to the accident.

"I wish there were more programs like this, in every community," said Kautuq.

"This isbased on Inuit culture. We use our culture. We use our mother tongue. It's a lot betterthat way."